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Kabul, Afghanistan – The crowds outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul continue to grow with each passing day under the Taliban.
What were initially a few hundred families outside the roundabout leading to the main entrance since the early days of the Taliban took control of the city August 15 has now swelled to thousands of desperate men, women and children crouching around a dilapidated gas station, fields of dirt, small patches of grass and almost any other expanse of land near doors leading to non-civilian areas of the airport.
Control of the road leading to the airport’s north gate is divided between the Taliban, who primarily patrol the roads, the last remaining members of the CIA-backed Afghan intelligence forces, and the foreign troops guarding the gigantic gate.
The dusty road is crowded with cars and rickshaws trying to get as close to the actual gate as possible, and people. Endless streams of civilians desperately trying to appeal to US-backed forces who were known for their brutal nightly raids on people’s homes, the Taliban, and foreign troops who sit on top of giant concrete walls.
Most of the questions put to the Afghan forces or the Taliban are not answered, but brute force.
The Taliban reportedly prevented people from reaching the airport and allegedly fired in the air and used batons to force people into queues outside the airport.
Men and women approaching Afghan forces in camouflage uniforms are also violently repelled. Some raise their weapons in the air and take turns firing aerial shots to disperse the crowd. These forces would still be under the control of the United States.
Others, including an over-enthusiastic young man with a red bandana on his forehead, wield yellow plastic pipes that they use to hit people who get too close or stay too long.
When a group of men approach and ask where to go, they are abruptly told, “Keep heading for the door.”
“We did, they told us to come back here,” they replied, echoing the confusion and disorganization that plagues countless people in this part of the capital.
Everyone Al Jazeera spoke to said they were constantly moved from place to place, only to encounter physical violence and aerial gunfire as they came and went in the sunshine. summer.
People wishing to leave Afghanistan wait outside Kabul International Airport [Ali M Latifi/Al Jazeera]The dangers are growing
The crowd grew so large that several square kilometers of the area between the Interior Ministry and the airport entrance gates began to resemble refugee camps.
The masses of people have also attracted their own economy, as carts, vans and ice cream trucks sell everything from cold water and soda to 50 Afghani ($ 0.58) palow, a dish of rice. and 10 Afghani ($ 0.12) bolani – vegan flatbread stuffed with leeks and potatoes.
Sherzai is one of those vendors. In the past five days, the middle-aged man has turned his van into a mobile store for hungry and tired crowds. But he says that the more the number of people increases, the more fearless salespeople increase.
“Before it was just a few of us, now it’s become a mini Mandawi,” he says, referring to the capital’s largest open-air market.
But with the benefits come the dangers.
Sherzai and several other vendors told Al Jazeera there was heavy gunfire early Sunday afternoon. Although they couldn’t be sure what triggered the shooting, they all said it looked like the bullets were fired between foreign and Afghan forces.
At least seven people died in a stampede that day. In total, at least 19 people have been killed at the airport since August 15.
Gunfire and the murder of at least one Afghan soldier were also reported early Monday morning, but as the incident occurred near dawn, there were few witnesses. Sources told Al Jazeera they heard gunshots, but had few details on what exactly happened.
(Al Jazeera)These incidents are yet another example of the dangers that await families, including women and young children, who hope to flee the country in one way or another.
An elderly man, in panic and not having given his name, said his wife and children were left by the north gate of the airport for three days in search of his daughter, who they said is arrival inside the airport.
“She’s still inside, waiting for us, but where are we going?” Who do we tell she is inside and that we have been separated, ”he said as foreign soldiers stand atop the doors overlooking the crowd of thousands, some of whom are waving documents in the air.
Another man held up a printed copy of a scanned document saying, “Look, I have a visa, why don’t they let me in? “
The Taliban, who are in charge of the first layer of security at the airport, say the Afghans are being duped by the very Westerners they helped defeat.
A Taliban source told Al Jazeera: “They are going because they have been told they can go to the United States and Europe without papers, without visas, without passports. We lie to them and degrade themselves for this fiction.
Despite Taliban allegations of Western deception, Afghans still cling to the hope of being able to escape life in the Islamic Emirate [Ali M Latifi/Al Jazeera]“Hard and painful”
US President Joe Biden called the efforts to evacuate people Kabul “an incredible operation”, citing the threat of a possible ISIL (IS) attack near the facility.
Most of his statements referred to US citizens, but Biden said Washington is also trying to help vulnerable people escape a potential Taliban threat.
Responding to criticism of Western handling of the evacuation, Biden said the process “is going to be difficult and painful … There is no way to evacuate so many people without pain and loss.”
Since Aug. 14, US-run airlifts have evacuated 28,000 people, Biden said. He did not rule out extending the evacuations beyond the August 31 deadline, although the Taliban has warned of the “consequences” if he does.
Despite the Taliban’s allegations of Western deception, Afghans still cling to the hope that he can escape life in the Islamic Emirate and a rapidly deteriorating economy.
Over the past week, pedestrians in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, where many embassies are located, have been asked to show their way to the embassies of the United Kingdom, France and Canada.
Shirzai, the seller, disagrees with the Taliban’s assessment. He says the thousands of people in line are the most destitute, trying everything to escape a country in which they see no future.
“Those who could afford it, those with connections are already gone,” he said as another C-17 carrying hundreds of passengers flew overhead.
Since then-president Ashraf Ghani fled last week, many Afghans have expressed anger that his cabinet, which included many dual passport holders, fled days before. Ghani’s flight to the United Arab Emirates.
Unlike those people, Shirzai says the crowds seated in makeshift tents created by children holding scraps of cloth over the heads of dozens of people have no choice but to stand out in the heat and dust.
“In this country, it is always the poor who pay,” he says.
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